Vittoria Tarquini

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Vittoria Tarquini , called La Bombace (or Bambagia ) (c. 1670 (?) In Florence - 1746 in Venice ) was an Italian singer ( soprano ) of the Baroque . She was one of the most celebrated singers of her time and was considered one of the best, if not the greatest tragedy women on the opera stage.

Life

Vittoria came from Florence, her father's name was Andrea Tarquini. It is not known whether she was related to Rossana Tarquini, who often sang in works by Lenzei .

Vittoria had her first known appearance on January 24, 1688 in Venice at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo , where she sang the role of Giulia in the world premiere of the opera Orazio , the music of which was presumably composed by Giuseppe Felice Tosi . On the same day, she met the Hereditary Prince of Tuscany , Ferdinando de 'Medici (1663–1713) , whose lover she later became; Ferdinando had previously been invited by Vincenzo Grimani to hear a “ brava cantatrice ” (outstanding singer) and after the performance gave the Tarquini a diamond worth more than 100 scudi . On February 14, 1688, also in San Giovanni Grisostomo, she sang the role of Angelica in Domenico Gabrielli's Carlo il Grande .

Shortly thereafter, in May 1688, the singer went to Hanover to the court of Elector Ernst August together with her sister Cornelia and a so far not exactly identified " musico Niccolino " or Nicolini (either Nicola Paris or Remolini) , where they met at the latest stops in autumn 1688 to appear in Agostino Steffani's Henrico Leone (premiere: January 30, 1689), together with the tenor Antonio Borosini , Giuseppe Galloni and the aforementioned "Nicolini". On January 8, 1689, three weeks before the premiere of Henrico Leone , she married Jean-Baptiste Farinel , the conductor (or first violinist) of the Elector of Hanover in Copenhagen (!) . She probably stayed in Germany and with her husband for a few more years, and also appeared in Steffani's La Lotta d'Ercole ed Acheloo , which has not yet been proven.

At the end of 1692 Tarquini was back in Venice, where she appeared as Clotilda at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in the particularly splendid premiere of the opera La forza della virtù (premiere: December 29, 1692); the music was probably written by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo .
In 1693 she was in Ferrara in the Teatro Bonacossi and sang in a performance of Bernardo Pasquini's Lisimaco next to the famous castrato Domenico Cecchi called " il Cortona "; she was announced with the Italianized surname of her husband as "Vittoria Farinelli".

Her engagement in Naples 1696–98 can be regarded as a musical highlight of her career . At the Teatro San Bartolomeo on December 27, 1696 she is the first Camilla in the world premiere of Giovanni Battista Bononcini's most successful opera Il Trionfo di Camilla, regina de 'Volsci , where she again alongside “Cortona” (D. Cecchi), as well the bassist Cavana and the soprano Maddalena Musi sings.
Tarquini also appears on the same stage in various works by Alessandro Scarlatti : in the operas Comodo Antonino (premiere: November 18, 1696), and L 'Emireno (overo il consiglio dell'ombra) (premiere: February 2, 1697).

She also sings during a fairytale festival in the villa of the Spanish viceroy in Posillipo near the sea on July 15, 1696 as Venus in Scarlatti's Serenata Venere, Amore ed Adone , alongside the famous soprano Matteuccio and Domenico Melchiorri . The Gazzetta di Napoli then praised the “very exquisite voices” (“ scieltissime voci ”) of the three soloists.

The following year she sang in A. Scarlatti's La Caduta de 'Decemviri (premiered December 15, 1697, Teatro San Bartolomeo); and in Carnival 1698 as Valeria in G. Bononcini's Muzio Scevola , both times in an ensemble with Matteuccio (Matteo Sassani), Maddalena Musi and the young Nicolino ( Nicolò Grimaldi ).

Then she is in Mantua and again in Venice. From 1699 she was in the service of Cosimo III. de 'Medici , and became the lover of the aforementioned Ferdinando de'Medici. She appeared regularly in the productions of the Medici court and sang in Pratolino a . a. 1706 in Il Gran Tamerlano by Alessandro Scarlatti. As Ferdinandos Maitresse she came into conflict with another favorite, the castrato Francesco de Castris ("Cecchino"), who was eventually forced to withdraw.

Vittoria Tarquini and de Castris were godparents of the later famous contralto Vittoria Tesi in February 1701 .

Handel and "Victoria"

“This opera attracted the best singers from the other opera houses (from Venice, editor's note). Among the most distinguished was the famous VITTORIA, who, shortly before Handel's arrival in Venice, had received permission from the Grand Duke to sing in one of the opera houses there. In AGRIPPINA her affection gave her talents a new shine. HANDEL seemed almost as tall and majestic as Apollo , and it was far from the lady's intentions to be as cruel and obstinate as Daphne . "

" This Opera drew over all the best singers from the other houses. Among the foremost of these was the famous VITTORIA, who a little before HANDEL'S removal to Venice had obtained permission of the grand Duke to sing in one of the houses there. At AGRIPPINA her inclinations gave new luster to her talents. HANDEL seemed almost as great and majestic as Apollo, and it was far from the lady's intention to be so cruel and obstinate as Daphne. "

- John Mainwaring : on Handel's Agrippina , in: Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel . (London 1760)

Vittoria Tarquini is the only known person who, according to historical sources , is said to have had a love affair with George Frideric Handel . This relationship, which has not been fully proven, but has also not been clearly refuted, has led to controversial and polemical debates in Handel expert circles .

According to Mainwaring, a famous "Victoria" or "Vittoria", "who was greatly admired both as an actress and as a singer" and is generally identified with Vittoria Tarquini, also sang in Handel's operas Rodrigo (Florence 1707) and Agrippina (Venice 1709); Mainwaring also indicates in a flowery but rather blatant way that she was in love with Handel and that they may have had a love affair (despite a relatively large age difference and despite her relationship with Ferdinando de'Medici).

The latter was rumored to be claimed by 80-year-old Sophie von Hannover in a letter to Sophie Dorothea von Prussia in 1710 :

"... the elector has hired a conductor whose name is Handel and who plays the harpsichord wonderfully and which the prince and elector enjoy a lot, he's a pretty handsome man and it is rumored that he was Victoria's lover."

“... que L'Electeur a pris un maitre de chapelle qui sappelle Hendel qui ioue a mervelle du clavesin dont le Prince et la Princesse Electorale on beaucoup de ioye, il est assez bel homme et la medisance dit qu'il a este amant de la Victoria. "

- Sophie of Hanover

Handel could have met Vittoria in May – June 1707 in Prince Ruspoli's villa in Vignanello near Rome, where she was on the guest list like Margherita Durastanti .
It is possible that Handel's cantatas Un'alma innamorata (HWV 173; dated June 30, 1707) and / or Armida abbandonata were sung by Vittoria Tarquini on this occasion.

On the other hand, Keates thinks that she probably did not sing in Handel's Rodrigo (as claimed by Mainwaring), since she was in the villa of Pratolino at the court of Ferdinando de'Medici (her lover) in 1707 and was there as a singing star. The Tarquini sang z. B. 1707 in Pertis Dionisio, re di Portogallo .

Whether she belonged to the ensemble of Handel's Agrippina in Venice in 1709 has also not been established, but the title role was occupied by Margherita Durastanti.

1708 created Massimiliano Soldani Benzi a bronze - medal with a portrait of Vittoria Tarquini on the one hand and a rose bush and other flowers on the back; on the back there is a Latin motto “Supereminet omnes” (She towers over everyone).

After her career, Vittoria Tarquini lived a secluded life in Venice, where she died in 1746.

literature

  • Helen Coffey: "Opera for the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Italian singers at the Hannover Court", in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (HRG.): Agostini Steffani - European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and Bishop of Leibniz -Zeit , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (V & R-unipress), Göttingen, 2017, p. 107–122, here: p. 116, excerpts online as a Google book (accessed on October 27, 2019)
  • Matthew Gardner: "Steffani's Italian Opera singers in Hanover, Recruitment and Vocal Style", in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (HRG.): Agostini Steffani - European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and bishop of Leibniz's time , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (V & R-unipress), Göttingen, 2017, pp. 123-138, here: p. 128, excerpts online as a Google Book (English; accessed October 27, 2019)
  • Beth Glixon: “Supereminet omnes, New light on the Life and Career of Vittoria Tarquini”, in: Handel-Jahrbuch 62 , 2016, pp. 385–398.
  • Colin Timms: Polymath of the Baroque: Agostino Steffani and His Music , Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 55, online as Google Book (English; accessed October 21, 2019)

Web links

  • " Vittoria Tarquini dite la Bombace ", article online at Quell'usignolo (French; accessed October 27, 2019)

Individual notes

  1. ↑ a b c Beth Glixon "Supereminet omnes, New Light on the Life and Career of Vittoria Tarquini," in Handel Yearbook 62 , 2016, pp 385-398.
  2. ^ A b Eleanor Selfridge-Field: A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660-1760 , Stanford University Press, 2007, p. 185 (footnote 314), online as a Google Book (English; accessed October 26, 2019 )
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Vittoria Tarquini dite la Bombace , online at Quell'usignolo (French; accessed October 27, 2019)
  4. ↑ This emerges from the baptism entry (of February 13, 1700 " ab incarnatione " = February 13, 1701 according to the Gregorian calendar ) of the later famous contralto Vittoria Tesi, whose godmother was Tarquini, and where her name is given as: ".. . Vettoria di Andrea Tarquini ne 'Farinelli, semper del popolo di San Frediano, ... ”. See: Maria Augusta Timpanaro Morelli: Per Tommaso Crudeli: nel 255 ° anniversario della morte, 1745-2000 , Firenze, Olshki, 2000, p. 31, ISBN 882224866X
  5. ↑ Helen Coffey suspects that the Tarquini's actual debut might have taken place earlier, possibly in Venice at the Teatro Sant'Angelo in the season 1684-85, where she might have met the Elector Ernst August of Hanover. Helen Coffey: "Opera for the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Italian singers at the Hannover Court", in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (HRG.): Agostini Steffani - European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and Bishop of Leibniz -Zeit , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (V & R-unipress), Göttingen, 2017, p. 107–122, here: p. 116, excerpts online as a Google book (accessed on October 21, 2019)
  6. ↑ In the literature used here, Ferdinand is usually referred to as the Grand Duke of Tuscany, which, strictly speaking, he was not, but his father Cosimo III. de 'Medici .
  7. ↑ Eleanor Selfridge-Field: A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660-1760 , Stanford University Press, 2007, pp. 184-185, online as a Google Book (English; accessed October 26, 2019)
  8. ↑ Eleanor Selfridge-Field: A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660-1760 , ..., 2007, p. 186.
  9. ^ "Musico" was the common Italian name for a castrato.
  10. ↑ On June 3, the Florentine ambassador in Venice wrote: “ Vittorietta insieme con la sua sorella Cornelia convogliate as musico Niccolino partirono le settimane a dietro alla volta di Annover. "Helen Coffey:" Opera for the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Italian singers at the Hannover Court ", in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (HRG.): Agostini Steffani - European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and bishop of the Leibniz-Zeit , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (V & R-unipress), Göttingen, 2017, p. 107–122, here: p. 117, excerpts online as Google Book (English; accessed on October 21, 2019)
  11. ↑ WP = world premiere (also in the episode)
  12. ↑ Helen Coffey: "Opera for the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Italian singers at the Hannover Court", in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (HRG.): Agostini Steffani - European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and bishop of the Leibniz-Zeit , ..., Göttingen, 2017, pp. 107–122, here: p. 117
  13. ↑ Colin Timms: Polymath of the Baroque: Agostino Steffani and His Music , Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 55, online as Google Book (English; accessed October 21, 2019)
  14. ↑ Matthew Gardner: "Steffani's Italian Opera singers in Hanover, Recruitment and Vocal Style", in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (HRG.): Agostini Steffani - European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and bishop of Leibniz's time , ..., Göttingen, 2017, pp. 123–138, here: p. 128
  15. ↑ Eleanor Selfridge-Field: A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660-1760 , ..., 2007, p. 205
  16. ↑ Lisimaco (Bernardo Pasquini) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  17. ^ Colin Timms: Polymath of the Baroque: Agostino Steffani and His Music , Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 55
  18. ^ Il trionfo di Camilla regina de 'Volsci (Giovanni Bononcini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  19. ^ Comodo Antonino (Alessandro Scarlatti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  20. ^ L 'Emireno overo il consiglio dell'ombra (Alessandro Scarlatti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  21. ↑ Grazia Carbonella: "Matteo Sassano il rosignolo di Napoli", in: La Capitanata , 21, 2007, pp. 235–260, here: pp. 239-40, online at Academia (Italian; accessed on October 21, 2019)
  22. ^ La Caduta de 'Decemviri (Alessandro Scarlatti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  23. ^ Muzio Scevola (Giovanni Bononcini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  24. ↑ Selfridge confuses Cosimo with his son Gian Gastone de 'Medici .
  25. ↑ Francesco Lora: Tesi, Vittoria, detta la Fiorentina o la Moretta , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 95, 2019, online on Treccani (Italian; accessed March 17, 2020)
  26. ^ Maria Augusta Timpanaro Morelli: Per Tommaso Crudeli: nel 255 ° anniversario della morte, 1745-2000 , Firenze, Olshki, 2000, p. 31, ISBN 882224866X
  27. ↑ Digitized in the Google book search
  28. ↑ Donald Burrows: Handel , Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition 2010, p. 1365, excerpts online as a Google Book (English; accessed October 27, 2019)
  29. ↑ Especially among supporters of the thesis that the eternal bachelor Handel was actually homosexual.
  30. ↑ Quotation from Mainwaring, here based on: Donald Burrows: Handel , Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition 2010, pp. 1359-60, excerpts online as a Google Book (English; accessed October 27, 2019)
  31. ↑ Donald Burrows: Handel , Oxford University Press, 2nd Edition 2010, pp. 1359-60 and 1365, excerpts online as a Google Book (English; accessed October 27, 2019)
  32. ↑ Jonathan Keates: Handel - the Man and his music , Random House, 1985/2009, pp. 34–37 & 49, excerpts online as a Google Book (English; accessed October 27, 2019)
  33. ↑ ... that Mainwaring could not have known!
  34. ↑ Here after: Anita Sikora: The Deconstruction of a Myth or A writer's perspectives on Handel's life (An Essay started on April 14, 2016) , (no page numbers), online at academia.edu (English (French quote); accessed on 21 October 2019)
  35. ↑ The letter is also mentioned by: Colin Timms: Polymath of the Baroque: Agostino Steffani and His Music , Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 55
  36. ↑ According to Thomas, the passage was discovered by Anthony Hicks. Gary C. Thomas: "Was George Frideric Handel gay?", In: Philip Brett, Elizabeth Wood, Gary C. Thomas (eds.): Queering the Pitch , Routledge, 2013, pp. 155-204, here: p. 164 ; in excerpts online as a Google Book (English; accessed on October 26, 2019)
  37. ↑ a b Jonathan Keates: Handel - the Man and his music , Random House, 1985/2009, p. 34, excerpts online as a Google Book (English; accessed October 27, 2019)
  38. ↑ Anita Sikora: The Deconstruction of a Myth or A writer's perspectives on Handel's life (An Essay started on April 14, 2016) , (no page numbers).
  39. ↑ Jonathan Keates: Handel - the Man and his music , Random House, 1985/2009, p. 37.
  40. ↑ Donald Burrows, Helen Coffey, John Greenacombe, Anthony Hicks: George Frideric Handel Collected Documents , Cambridge 2015. Here after: Anita Sikora: The Deconstruction of a Myth or A writer's perspectives on Handel's life ... , (no page numbers).
  41. ↑ Anita Sikora: The Deconstruction of a Myth or A writer's perspectives on Handel's life ... , (no page numbers).
  42. ↑ A cast list for the world premiere can be found on the website of the Handel Institute (accessed on October 29, 2019).
  43. ↑ See the website numismatica-italiana (accessed October 29, 2019)
personal data
SURNAME Tarquini, Vittoria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES La Bombace; La Bambagia; Farinelli, Vittoria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: around 1670
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Florence
DATE OF DEATH 1746
Place of death Venice